I saw this article on John Chow today. If you have a blog you can add it to Amazon.com Kindle directory of blogs. Subscription revenue will be divided 70/30 70% going to Amazon and 30% going to you. Prices will start out at $1.99/month. I doubt anyone would pay to read my blog or most anyone’s blog for that matter, but it’s free publicity. I just signed up minutes ago and my CashSherpa.com is currently “Published” it was “Pending.” Get your blog published on Kindle here.

Web 2.0 is all about sharing, and the role that Youtube dot com played in increasing communication between people has been invaluable. We all know that videos consume a lot of bandwidth and computer resources, but a service like youtube made viewing videos online easy, fun and effortless. It also inspired people to be creative. Have something to share to the world, take your cam phone and create a 2 minute video; upload it to youtube and tag it in such a way that people will find it.

I have seen Youtube.com evolve from being a video depot to a video sharing site, and I am not at all surprised at the transition was encouraged by the millions of youtube users who continue to make friends with other video enthusiasts. This service has definitely improved the way people interact online. Instead of just photos, people have been taping their daily endeavors and sharing these with people.

Accessibility is the main thing that made youtube popular, and I think the no-porn rule helped a lot. Reporting porn is very easy, and more often than not, Youtube management will listen to users’ views of what is unacceptable and lewd. Our families and friends watch youtube, and I don’t think there’s an easier way to show people videos and discuss them together. If we wanted to tell our friends about a particular clip that we made, we can just invite them over to the page by sending them the link. Putting the video up in youtube is easier than mailing the big video file to a person.

It has also become a repository for online tutorials. Demonstrating how well you know your blog topic through a video or talking about an interest and showing how it should be done increases credibility. There are many marketers who have used the service to increase their audience size. People who would ever have known about them see their videos, comment and subscribe. Building friendships is also easy, and there are certain advantages to “friending” other people. People can limit access to their videos to their community. The best way to help people find your videos is to tag them well. Appropriate tagging, putting in relevant titles, and descriptions are skills that every “Youtuber” should know.

There us no doubt that video sharing helps bloggers and web entrepreneurs create new connections and develop networks. A video is very personal and sharing a part of yourself and your knowledge with others becomes an experience that they don’t easily forget. You can use your youtube profile to boost company sales, promote products and even services. The potential for collaboration is limitless. People who were not friends with each other in the past collaborate and create videos together. Some even claim to have found long lost friends through communities in youtube. It’s like facebook, but a more creative and fun.

A good idea is a curious thing. The one who came up with it will get the chance to test it, and if it works, he will stay complacent and try to smooth the details out. In some instances, someone else comes along to improve things and sets up a similar service with bonuses. Now, let’s talk about Plurk and Twitter. Two web 2.0 services that are free to join and extremely addictive. Twitter was “it” until Plurk arrived. I’ve noticed that Twitter use has decreased among my own circle, while Plurk has been attracting more members. Both sites ask users a question, which basically means “what’s up with you.” You can tell the world what you’ve been doing, what you’re crazy about as of the moment, or what you plan to do today. You can start a conversation within your circle and read what others have to say in small windows.

• In Twitter, updates (called “twits”), yours and others, are posted on your profile. People can follow you and they will see your updates, as well as your current followers, and people you have been following. You, in turn can follow the individuals that your followers are following, until you form a complicated community when everyone can see what everyone else is doing. It’s fun! In Twitter, you can send private messages, presented in the same way as updates, to others. Other systems have evolved as a result of this Twitter fandom, one of which is Twhirl. Numerous plugins have also been created to put your twitters on your blogs.

• In Plurk, when other users want to read your updates, they may add you as a fan. They stay as your fans until you add them back, which will turn them into friends. A private plurk (message) may also be sent to a user you want to talk to privately. Like Twitter, there are many applications for plurk that you can use to enhance your messaging and community building experience.

The Main Differences Between Twitter and Plurk

• The Update Management. We hate spammers, and we hate how updates at Twitter move off the list so easily in just a few hours because of some spammers. Twitter displays updates one after the other, and place the newest items at the top, and the older ones at the bottom. How about if we want to view the older ones, do we have to go through the numbers at the bottom just t view this morning’s twits? Plurk presents user updates in a timeline, putting the newer items on the left. This timeline can be dragged across your screen to display other dates. You can even customize your viewing of messages and only show new comments, An option to not see a discussion about an update is also available and you can do this by “muting” if you don’t want to read any further comments on an update.

• Discussing an update also becomes confusing in Twitter because you can reply to an update by typing the at sign before a user’s name and clicking reply. In Plurk, you can isolate one discussion (read: further comments) to one update, so that those who want to join in may do so.

Comments Off on The Above-the-Fold Power Spots and What Should Stay There

The Above-the-Fold Power Spots and What Should Stay There

Do you notice how magazine covers are laid out? There are headlines and taglines that are bigger and more colorful than most, and there’s a very good reason for this. They realize that people view a page a certain way, and that’s from top to bottom. Blog advertising is not much different. You can control what your readers see first. The first things that they see without scrolling downwards should reflect your priorities on your blog. When you place advertisements on top, it tells of your blog’s purpose. Those who are focused on getting readers place their subscribe buttons or banners at the top spot, and around this is the link box pointing to their recent posts, most popular posts and categories.

The term “above the fold” is usually associated with newspaper, and this refers to the main headline, main photos and main issues that aim to make the reader pick up the paper and buy it. This is the most important spot on a news page, and your blog functions the same way. What you write about is news to others and so what you deem will catch their attention and continue reading will have to be placed above the fold. You will notice that popular sites place self serving ads above the fold, or widgets that get them the most traffic.

Some other sources delineate the most important spot on a page according to the way a reader browses. We are trained to read from left to right, and so the most valuable place above the fold seems to be the left hand corner. Web 2.0 themes are designed to show the content first (left side) and then the ad banners or the subscribe button.

What to put on your power spots?

1. A tasteful header image which tells people exactly what your blog is about. Something that doesn’t cover the whole screen, maybe 100 px or so in height.

2. A link to the homepage, so that readers who might have arrived on more obscure pages on your blog have a means of getting to your front page with minimum hassle.

3. If you don’t mind placing a photo of yourself on your blog, you can place this inside your About Me box at the top spot, adjacent to your latest post.

4. Links to your best posts (using the Most Popular WordPress plugin)

5. Top commentors plugin widget. This is for those who believe that rewarding their blog’s most avid commenters will encourage participation in others.

6. Your community banner. I have seen blogs with Twitter, Stumbleupon, MyBlogLog, Blog Catalog widgets above the fold and have always asked: what’s the logic behind the placement. Now, I realize that getting people to join their communities in these blog directories and social networks so that they can have a long term traffic source.